Drones and targeted killing : legal, moral, and geopolitical issues / edited by Marjorie Cohn ; with a foreword by Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: A frightening new way of war / Marjorie Cohn -- Part I The United States and Drone Warfare -- Why drones are more dangerous than nuclear weapons / Richard Falk -- Drones and assassination in the US's permanent war / Phyllis Bennis -- The Predator war / Jane Mayer -- Part II Targeted Killing and "Collateral Damage" -- A global assassination program / Tom Reifer -- The grim toll drones take on innocent lives / Medea Benjamin -- Documenting civilian casualties / Alice K. Ross -- Part III Illegal and Immoral -- US policy of targeted killing with drones: illegal at any speed / Jeanne Mirer -- Drone warfare and just war theory / Harry van der Linden -- Al-Aulai v. Obama: targeted killing goes to court / Pardiss Kebriaei -- The case of Israel: a covert policy of political capital punishment / Ishai Menuchin -- Part IV The Future of Targeted Killing -- Drone strike blowback / John Quigley -- Surveillance drones in America / Jay Stanley -- To stop the drones? / Tom Hayden -- Appendix A. Department of Justice white paper: Appendix B. White House: Fact sheet: US policy standards and procedures for the use of force in counterterrorism operations outside the United States and areas of active hostilities.

The Bush administration detained and tortured suspected terrorists; the Obama administration assassinates them. Assassination, or targeted killing, off the battlefield not only causes more resentment against the United States, it is also illegal. In this interdisciplinary collection, human rights and political activists, policy analysts, lawyers and legal scholars, a philosopher, a journalist, and a sociologist examine different aspects of the U.S. policy of targeted killing with drones and other methods. It explores the legality, morality and geopolitical considerations of targeted killing and resulting civilian casualties, and evaluates the impact on relations between the United States and affected countries. The book includes the documentation of civilian casualties by the leading non-governmental organization in this area; stories of civilians victimized by drones; an analysis of the first U.S. targeted killing lawsuit by the lawyer who brought the case; a discussion of the targeted killing cases in Israel by the director of PCATI which filed one of the lawsuits; the domestic use of drones; and the immorality of drones using Just War principles.